The judges are not obliged to give the Lord Congleton Award, for an overall winner, but they had no difficulty in deciding that Gold Hill fully merited it. A quite exceptional degree of thought had clearly been put into it, from initial concept to detailed execution. The site offered great potential, but this could have […]

Evidence of what had been on the site previously showed buildings converted to light industrial use, appropriate to the location in layout, but of no particular merit in themselves. The judges applauded the decision to create a new barn-type building on the existing footprint, to the extent of creating walls with a slight curve in […]

The judges’ first impression of this project was that the timber-clad jettied front to the street set out an immediate marker for something into which a lot of thought and care had gone, and this was backed up by everything they subsequently saw. The shop space downstairs was markedly enhanced by the cunning light well […]

Hedges West might seem at first glance a fairly unremarkable riverside house picking up on barn patterns to be found in the area, with black-stained timber cladding and a slate roof, but a visit soon revealed the sophistication and cleverness behind an essentially simple design. The house sits on a raft structure, taking its level […]

The judges were aware that constraints of budget, and considerations caused by the school’s tight and awkward site, and its proximity to the cathedral, would limit the extent to which groundbreaking architecture was likely to be achievable, but they were impressed by the way the new block still managed to rise to something higher than […]

Taking the place of a bungalow of little merit, Holmlea adds a contemporary note to a road of varying character. To the front, the projecting central bay lends a vertical emphasis, contrasting with the more spreading form of the rear. In both cases, white render and plenty of glass provide the key elements, with well-judged […]

Traditional in its design approach, Lake House offers a fairly conventional late Georgian-type front to the village street not far away, with a relatively elaborate timber porch but otherwise quite restrained. The marginal glazing to the central first floor window, typical of that period, is a nice touch. At the rear, where a wonderful view […]

The success of this house could be very rapidly established by comparing it with three houses of the mid 1990s, in a former farmyard not far off at the southern edge of the village. While they achieved little more than a parody of the true village style, Quarry House reinstates traditional character by its position […]